Al Costello Fabulous Kangaroos Who did Costello team with? a wrestler he had worked with some years ago named Roy Heffernan. Who was Costello billed as? The Fabulous Kangaroos
Where did Costello move to?
Where did Al Costello move to?
For years, Al Costello had been working on an idea for a new tag team; he even knew who he wanted for a partner: a wrestler he had worked with some years ago named Roy Heffernan. Because Costello and Heffernan had lost touch over the years, the idea remained dormant until Costello toured Hawaii in 1956. Costello mentioned his idea of an "Ultra Australian" tag team to fellow wrestler, and future promoter, Joe Blanchard. Blanchard happened to be a good friend of Roy Heffernan and knew he was working in Stampede Wrestling at the time. Blanchard put the two in touch with each other, and Costello was soon off to Calgary, Alberta, Canada to join Heffernan and finally make his tag team a reality. Costello and Heffernan debuted as "The Fabulous Kangaroos" on 3 May 1957 for Stu Hart's Stampede Wrestling promotion in a match against Maurice LaPointe and Tony Baillargeon. Only weeks after that first match, The Kangaroos were working with the top tag teams in the promotion.  After working in Stampede for a while, The Fabulous Kangaroos started to travel across the United States, headlining shows wherever they went due to their ability to rile up crowds with their heel (bad guy) tactics. On one occasion in August 1958, The Kangaroos, or "Kangaroo Men" as they were billed, nearly caused a riot in Madison Square Garden during a match against Antonino Rocca and Miguel Perez; the fans began to throw fruit and stones at them. After the match ended without a decisive winner, the promoters stepped in, turned up the arena lights, and played the National Anthem to stop a potential riot. This was a common tactic used at the time by the New York promoters in order to prevent riots and help the heels leave the arena unharmed. Later that year, Costello and Heffernan started working for Dory Funk's NWA Western States promotion based in Amarillo, Texas. Here, The Kangaroos won their first title as a team when they defeated Pepper Gomez and El Medico to win the Texas version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship on 17 November 1958. Their first title reign was short lived, however, as Gomez and Rito Romero defeated them to regain the titles two weeks later.  Between 1957 and 1965, The Kangaroos wrestled in the United States, Canada, Asia and select tours of Australia and New Zealand. They worked for such companies as Capitol Wrestling Corporation (the future World Wrestling Entertainment), Championship Wrestling from Florida, NWA Ohio, the Japan Wrestling Association and the World Wrestling Association in Los Angeles, California.  The Kangaroos never forgot their roots and continued to work in Canada off and on through the years; in addition to Stampede Wrestling, the team also worked for NWA All-Star Wrestling based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Costello featured in a National Film Board of Canada short subject La Lotta/Wrestling/Le Catch. Their stint in NWA All-Star Wrestling was the last time Costello and Heffernan teamed together. In June 1965, The Kangaroos lost to Don Leo Jonathan and Jim Hardy and then split up. Heffernan had left Australia to tour the world in 1953 and wanted to return to his homeland, while Costello was determined to remain in the United States for a while longer. CANNOTANSWER
Costello was determined to remain in the United States for a while longer.
Giacomo Costa (14 December 1919 – 22 January 2000) was an Italian Australian professional wrestler best known by his ring name, Al Costello. Costello was the first professional wrestler to be nicknamed "The Man of a Thousand Holds" because of his innovative and very technical style.

Costello was the creator and original member of the tag team The Fabulous Kangaroos, whose "Ultra Australian" gimmick complete with boomerangs, bush hats and the song "Waltzing Matilda" as their entrance music, existed in various forms from 1957 until 1983. Costello was either an active wrestler, or a manager in all versions of The Fabulous Kangaroos. He and Roy Heffernan are arguably the most famous version of The Kangaroos, regarded as one of the top tag teams to ever compete in professional wrestling, and are often credited with popularizing tag team wrestling in the late 1950s and 1960s.

Costello later formed other versions of The Fabulous Kangaroos with Ray St. Clair, Don Kent and Tony Charles. He also managed the team of Don Kent & Bruno Bekkar and later on "Johnny Heffernan" under The Fabulous Kangaroos name.

Costello officially retired from wrestling in 1983 but still made a few brief returns to the ring after that. In 1993, he managed The New Fabulous Kangaroos (Denny Kass and Al Snow) before retiring completely from the wrestling business. Both Costello and his tag team partner Heffernan died before Kangaroos were honored as the first tag team to ever be inducted into the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2003, which started a tradition of inducting a new team every year.

Early life
Costa was born in the village of Lingua, in the Italian island of Santa Marina Salina, Sicily, and lived there until his family immigrated to Australia when he was six years old. The family settled in Rockdale, New South Wales, where Costa helped out in his father's fruit store. He excelled at school sports, and became interested in weightlifting at an early age. At age 16, Costa took up amateur boxing despite his father's wishes that he should become an opera singer. Costa was approached by Australian middleweight wrestling champion "Basher Bonas", who convinced him to try wrestling. Costa made his debut under an assumed name; his father still had hopes of him becoming an opera singer, and he did not want his parents to find out that he was wrestling. He came up with the name "Al Costello", thinking it sounded tough like a portmanteau of Al Capone and Frank Costello.

Wrestling career
Al Costello made his professional wrestling debut in 1938, but the man that would be known as "The Man of a Thousand Holds" 20 years later, found little success early in his career. The general belief in Australian professional wrestling at the time was that a wrestler had to go to North America and learn how to be a pro before the bookers would even consider pushing them up the card. Costello travelled across Asia, where he did see some success; he won the Malaysian Heavyweight title in 1939, as well as the South Africa trophy in 1949. During the 1950s, Costello finally started to turn heads at home by winning the Australasian title. In 1952, Costello began wrestling in America, hoping to finally break through and make a big name of himself.

Fabulous Kangaroos

For years, Al Costello had been working on an idea for a new tag team; he even knew who he wanted for a partner: a wrestler he had worked with some years ago named Roy Heffernan. Because Costello and Heffernan had lost touch over the years, the idea remained dormant until Costello toured Hawaii in 1956. Costello mentioned his idea of an "Ultra Australian" tag team to fellow wrestler, and future promoter, Joe Blanchard. Blanchard happened to be a good friend of Roy Heffernan and knew he was working in Stampede Wrestling at the time. Blanchard put the two in touch with each other, and Costello was soon off to Calgary, Alberta, Canada to join Heffernan and finally make his tag team a reality. Costello and Heffernan debuted as "The Fabulous Kangaroos" on 3 May 1957 for Stu Hart's Stampede Wrestling promotion in a match against Maurice LaPointe and Tony Baillargeon. Only weeks after that first match, The Kangaroos were working with the top tag teams in the promotion.

After working in Stampede for a while, The Fabulous Kangaroos started to travel across the United States, headlining shows wherever they went due to their ability to rile up crowds with their heel (bad guy) tactics. On one occasion in August 1958, The Kangaroos, or "Kangaroo Men" as they were billed, nearly caused a riot in Madison Square Garden during a match against Antonino Rocca and Miguel Pérez; the fans began to throw fruit and stones at them. After the match ended without a decisive winner, the promoters stepped in, turned up the arena lights, and played the National Anthem to stop a potential riot. This was a common tactic used at the time by the New York promoters in order to prevent riots and help the heels leave the arena unharmed. Later that year, Costello and Heffernan started working for Dory Funk's NWA Western States promotion based in Amarillo, Texas. Here, The Kangaroos won their first title as a team when they defeated Pepper Gomez and El Medico to win the Texas version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship on 17 November 1958. Their first title reign was short lived, however, as Gomez and Rito Romero defeated them to regain the titles two weeks later.

Between 1957 and 1965, The Kangaroos wrestled in the United States, Canada, Asia and select tours of Australia and New Zealand. They worked for such companies as Capitol Wrestling Corporation (the future World Wrestling Entertainment), Championship Wrestling from Florida, NWA Ohio, the Japan Wrestling Association and the World Wrestling Association in Los Angeles, California.

The Kangaroos never forgot their roots and continued to work in Canada off and on through the years; in addition to Stampede Wrestling, the team also worked for NWA All-Star Wrestling based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Costello featured in a National Film Board of Canada short subject La Lotta/Wrestling/Le Catch. Their stint in NWA All-Star Wrestling was the last time Costello and Heffernan teamed together. In June 1965, The Kangaroos lost to Don Leo Jonathan and Jim Hardy and then split up. Heffernan had left Australia to tour the world in 1953 and wanted to return to his homeland, while Costello was determined to remain in the United States for a while longer.

Between Kangaroos
Heffernan returned to Australia and began working for World Championship Wrestling (the Australian version, not the North American wrestling federation) under booker Jim Barnett as a singles wrestler. Costello was originally supposed to return to Australia as well and work for WCW, but those plans never came through. Instead, Costello remained in the United States and kept working in the tag team division, never seeking a career as a singles wrestler. Costello began wrestling for Georgia Championship Wrestling, where he teamed up with Louis Tillet to form a tag team known as "The Globetrotters"; a name that played off Costello's Australian and Tillet's French heritage. The Globetrotters defeated the Mysterious Medics in the finals of the Georgia NWA World Tag Team Championship but only held the titles for a week before losing them to Kurt and Karl Von Brauner on 4 February 1966. After this, the Globetrotters broke up due to differences in their approach to tag teaming.

Costello then moved to the NWA Mid-America territory near Nashville, Tennessee. In Mid-American, Costello teamed with Herb Welch to win the Mid-American version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship, which they held for just over 2 months. While still working in Mid-America, Costello began to team with Karl Von Brauner, who used a "German Nazi" gimmick despite being American. Under the management of "Playboy" Gary Hart, Costello and Von Brauner were billed as "The Internationals"; the team was later managed by George "Crybaby" Cannon. The Internationals worked mainly in Tennessee and Texas for NWA Western States. In Texas, Costello and Von Brauner won the Texas version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship, a title Costello and Heffernan had held in 1958. The team was also billed as the first NWA American Tag Team Champions, titles that were also recognized by World Class Championship Wrestling in addition to the Western States promotion. The Internationals lost the American Tag Team title to Fritz and Waldo Von Erich on 21 February 1967. Kurt then decided to go back to teaming with his storyline brother, Karl Von Brauner.

After the Internationals broke up, Costello returned to Australia to visit friends and relatives and to recuperate after many years on the road. On his way back to the United States, Costello had a stop over in Detroit, Michigan, where he met Cleo Williams. The two fell in love and married shortly afterwards, remaining together for the rest of Costello's life.

Kangaroos once more

In 1967, Al Costello reformed The Fabulous Kangaroos, this time teaming up with Ray St. Clair. The team had been touring non-stop for about six months when St. Clair was forced to retire due to knee problems. A few months after St. Clair retired, Costello found a new man to don the bush hat: Don Kent. Kent, who was from Michigan, adopted the Ultra-Australian gimmick (but retained his American accent) and the two formed the third overall and second most well-known version of The Fabulous Kangaroos. Costello and Kent teamed together on a regular basis from 1968 until 1974, approximately the same amount of time that Costello spent teaming with his original partner, Roy Heffernan. Costello and Kent continued in a tradition that was reminiscent of the original Kangaroos; when a federation needed a new tag team title, The Kangaroos were brought in and acknowledged as champions upon arrival instead of holding a tournament to determine the champions. In 1967, the Japanese federation "International Wrestling Enterprise" (IWE) brought The Kangaroos in as the first Trans-World Wrestling Alliance World Tag Team Champions. They held this title until 10 January 1968 when IWE mainstays Toyonobori and Thunder Sugiyama beat them for the gold. Over the years, many more title reigns came from various promotions all over the globe. In Canada, The Kangaroos were the first Eastern Sports Association International Tag Team Champions. In the World Wrestling Association of Indianapolis, they held the WWA World Tag Team Championship twice. In addition to winning titles all over North America, Costello and Kent also made appearances for the World Wide Wrestling Federation (now known as WWE).

The Kangaroos frequented NWA Detroit, where they held the Detroit version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship for most of 1971. By the end of 1972, The Kangaroos began working for Nick Gulas' NWA Mid-America. In Mid-America, they held the local version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship, the Mid-America version, on three occasions.

After a match at Cincinnati Gardens, an enraged fan took a fire extinguisher off the wall and threw it at Costello and Kent from the balcony of the Gardens. The extinguisher hit Costello in the hip, damaging it so much that he needed hip replacement surgery later that year. The fan was arrested, served 15 days in jail, and fined fifty dollars for damaging the fire extinguisher. The hip injury left Costello unable to wrestle, and The Fabulous Kangaroos split up once again. Costello had a full hip replacement and was forced to retire from active competition.

Managing
In 1975, Costello surprised everyone by returning to professional wrestling as the manager of the team known as "The Love Brothers" (Hartford and Reggie Love). He actually stepped into the ring on occasion as part of special six-man tag team matches.

After recovering from his hip surgery, Costello returned to active competition at age 56. The fact that he was able to recover from such a major injury is credited to his almost-fanatical style of healthy living. As a devout vegan, Costello credited his meat-free diet with his recovery, as well as the remarkable shape he was in for a man of his age.

Costello reformed The Fabulous Kangaroos once more, this time teaming up with wrestler Tony Charles. The team defeated Dominic DeNucci and Chris Markoff to win Detroit's version of the NWA World Tag Team title, the same title that Costello and Kent had previously held. The Kangaroos title run was short, however, and they lost their gold to "Crazy" Luke Graham and Ripper Collins.

In 1977, Tony Charles was replaced by Don Kent and the two reunited for a tour of Puerto Rico with the World Wrestling Council (WWC). In Puerto Rico, The Kangaroos arrived billed as the WWC World Tag Team Champions, once more to give a newly created title legitimacy. They dropped the titles to Carlos Colón and Jose Rivera on 12 March 1977 and remained in the WWC until 1978 chasing, but never regaining, the WWC World Tag Team Championship. After their tour in Puerto Rico ended, Don Kent returned to singles wrestling, and Costello refocused on managing.

Still a Kangaroo
In 1981, Costello convinced Kent to once again don the bush hat and pick up the boomerang. Costello got Kent to team up with Bruno Bekkar, who was mostly known from working in his native New Zealand and Australia. Kent and Bekkar worked a tour for the WWC, while Costello served as their manager. The team won the WWC North American Tag Team titles from Jack and Jerry Brisco on 22 October 1981. They then lost the titles to Invader I and Super Gladiator but quickly gained them back before dropping the titles for good to Invader and Gladiator on 26 January 1982. The Kent and Bekkar team only lasted through one tour of the Caribbean, after which Bruno Bekkar returned to Australia and New Zealand to work for the local promotions there.

Bekkar was replaced with Johnny Heffernan (Canadian wrestler Bob Della Serra), a storyline cousin of Roy Heffernan, for what was the final version of The Fabulous Kangaroos. The team ended Terry and Dory Funk Jr.'s year and a half run with the WWC World Tag Team championship on 1 May 1982. Kent and Heffernan held the gold for less than two months before losing the WWC World Tag Team titles to Invader I and Pierre Martel. After a tour in Puerto Rico, Costello, Kent and Heffernan returned to work for Championship Wrestling from Florida (CWF), a promotion The Kangaroos last worked for in 1962. In Florida, The Kangaroos won the NWA Florida Global Tag Team Championship four times. The final storyline involving The Fabulous Kangaroos saw Al Costello bring in J.J. Dillon to act as his short term replacement while he was "away on business". When Costello returned from his business trip, Dillon kayfabe refused to give up The Kangaroos' contracts and was backed up by both Kent and Heffernan. This angle was designed to write Al Costello out of The Fabulous Kangaroos' storyline and allow him to retire from wrestling altogether. Not long after Costello retired, Kent and Johnny Heffernan went their separate ways.

Retirement
After retiring from wrestling, Al Costello became the head of security at College Harbor, Florida. In 1992, at the age of 71, Costello retired from his job in Florida and began teaching wrestling. He also started to manage The New Fabulous Kangaroos in 1993, a team consisting of Mickey Doyle and Denny Kass who worked for "Motor City Wrestling" (MCW). By the fall of 1993, Mickey Doyle had been replaced by a young wrestler by the name of Al Snow; with Costello's help The New Fabulous Kangaroos defeated "Canadian Lighting" (Otis Apollo and "Irish" Bobby Clancy), on 29 December 1993, to win the MCW Tag Team Championship. On 14 May 1994, Kass and Snow defeated Canadian Lighting again to win the Border City Wrestling (BCW) Can-Am Tag Team Championship, unifying the two tag team championships. A week later, The New Fabulous Kangaroos lost both sets of titles to Scott D'Amore and "Irish" Bobby Clancy. After losing the unified MCW/BCW Tag Team championships, The New Kangaroos split up; Snow focused on his World Wrestling Federation career while Costello retired for good, never making another wrestling related appearance.

Death
On 22 January 2000, Costello died from a combination of pneumonia and heart problems, in Clearwater, Florida. In 2003, Al Costello and Roy Heffernan became the first tag team to ever be inducted into the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame. Since that time, the Hall of Fame has honored other tag teams, but The Fabulous Kangaroos were given the honor of being the first. In the tradition of the Kangaroos, they were "billed as champions on arrival" one last time.

Championships and accomplishments
Alex Turk Promotions (Winnipeg)
International Tag Team Championship (2 times) - with Roy Heffernan
Capitol Wrestling Corporation
NWA United States Tag Team Championship (Northeast version) (3 times) - with Roy Heffernan
Cauliflower Alley Club
Other honoree (1994)
Championship Wrestling from Florida
NWA United States Tag Team Championship (Florida version) (1 time) - with Roy Heffernan
NWA World Tag Team Championship (Florida version)(1 time) - with Roy Heffernan
Eastern Sports Association
ESA International Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Don Kent
Georgia Championship Wrestling
NWA World Tag Team Championship (Georgia version) 1 time – with Louie Tillet
International Wrestling Enterprise
Trans-World Wrestling Alliance World Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Don Kent
Japan Wrestling Association
NWA International Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Roy Heffernan
Midwest Wrestling Association
NWA United States Tag Team Championship (Ohio version) (1 time) - with Roy Heffernan
Mike London Promotions
Rocky Mountain Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Roy Heffernan
National Wrestling Alliance
NWA Hall of Fame (Class of 2013)
NWA All-Star Wrestling
NWA Canadian Tag Team Championship (Vancouver version) (4 times) - with Roy Heffernan
NWA Big Time Wrestling
NWA American Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Karl Von Brauner
NWA World Tag Team Championship (Texas version) (2 times) - with Roy Heffernan (1), Karl Von Brauner (1)
NWA Detroit
NWA World Tag Team Championship (Detroit version) (3 times) - with Roy Heffernan (2), Ray St. Clair (1)
NWA Mid-America
NWA Southern Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
NWA World Tag Team Championship (Mid-America version) 4 times) - with Don Kent (3), Herb Welch (1)
New Zealand Wrestling Union
NWA Australasian Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame
Class of 2003 - with Roy Heffernan
Western States Sports
NWA International Tag Team Championship (Texas version) (1 time) - with Roy HeffernanA
 NWA World Tag Team Championship (Amarillo version) (1 time) - with Roy Heffernan
World Wrestling Association
WWA World Tag Team Championship (2 times) - with Don Kent
Worldwide Wrestling Associates
WWA World Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Roy Heffernan
WWA International Television Tag Team Championship (2 times) - with Roy Heffernan
World Wrestling Council
WWC World Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Don Kent
Wrestling Observer Newsletter
Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (Class of 1996) with Roy Heffernan

References

External links
 New Fabulous Kangaroos Tribute page
 Roy Heffernan Interview

1919 births
2000 deaths
Australian male professional wrestlers
Italian emigrants to Australia
Italian male professional wrestlers
Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum
Sportspeople from the Province of Messina
Stampede Wrestling alumni
Deaths from pneumonia in Florida
Carol Costello (born October 11, 1961) is an American television anchor and former host of CNN Newsroom. In 2017, she left CNN to join sister network HLN, based in Los Angeles. In October 2018, HLN announced that Costello would be let go, with the final broadcast of her show taking place on October 26.

Early life and education
Costello is a graduate of Minerva High School, a public high school in Minerva, Ohio, and Kent State University where she earned a B.A. in journalism. After attending Kent State University, Costello worked at Akron, Ohio's WAKR-TV as an award-winning police and court reporter. Following that Costello was an Emmy-award-winning anchor/reporter for WSYX, the ABC affiliate, and WBNS 10-TV, the CBS affiliate in Columbus, Ohio. She also worked as the 6 and 11pm news anchor for WBAL-TV in Baltimore between 1992 and 1995.

Career

CNN
Costello worked as an anchor at CNN Headline News (now called HLN) and was also the anchor of Good Morning Washington and an investigative reporter at WJLA-TV, the ABC affiliate in Washington, D.C., during the September 11 attacks.

She previously worked out of the network's New York City bureau. She was part of CNN's Peabody-winning coverage of Hurricane Katrina and the 2008 presidential election, and also covered the Virginia Tech massacre, the inauguration of Barack Obama and the Casey Anthony trial. Costello has done in-depth reporting on bullying, coal ash, and women's issues. After a CNN viewer nominated her, Costello ran with the Olympic torch through the streets of Atlanta prior to the Atlanta Olympics.

As a reporter and anchor, Costello has interviewed Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton and George H. W. Bush. Previously, Costello anchored the CNN early morning program CNN Daybreak and also was news reader and correspondent on American Morning. She was the anchor of CNN Daybreak, then a New York-based correspondent, and subsequently a contributor to The Situation Room. Costello hosted the 9 am–11 am slot of CNN Newsroom, based out of CNN's New York news bureau.

Costello elicited criticism when she referred to audio of Bristol Palin describing an assault on her to police as "quite possibly the best minute and a half of audio we've ever come across."  Paul Bedard called Costello's "rude and crude enjoyment" an easy slap by a prominent female media star on a young woman.  Costello later stated that "in retrospect, I deserve such criticism and would like to apologize."

On January 30, 2017, Costello announced that she would return to HLN to host a new program from Los Angeles. On August 21, 2017 her new show Across America with Carol Costello debuted.

On October 16, 2018 it was announced by HLN that Costello was to be laid off, along with Michaela Pereira and Ashleigh Banfield, as part of the network's decision to scale back their live news programming. The final broadcasts for their programs took place on Friday, October 26, 2018. Although both Ashleigh Banfield and Michaela Pereira stayed to host their shows until their last days, Costello did not appear on air after October 16, 2018 with CNN correspondent Dianne Gallagher hosting the final broadcast.

Since then, Costello has taken a more active role at Loyola Marymount University where she serves as first lady. She is a professor in the newly established journalism major and now also hosts a podcast developed by the university. According to Costello herself, she had been wanting to start a new venture for a while, even back on her days at CNN.

Personal life
A former resident of Atlanta, Georgia, Costello moved to the New York area after marrying Timothy Law Snyder in 2004. She and Snyder later moved to Baltimore, Maryland. In October 2015, Snyder was named president of Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. In January 2017, Costello cited her husband's relocation as a primary factor in her decision to leave CNN for HLN and move to Los Angeles.

In April 2015, Costello wrote that she became a "lapsed Catholic" after losing her younger brother Jimmy to cancer when she was 25. However, she stated that Pope Francis "reawakened my faith".

References

External links 

Profile at CNN website

1961 births
American television news anchors
Kent State University alumni
Living people
American broadcast news analysts
People from Minerva, Ohio
American women television journalists
CNN people
Journalists from Ohio
21st-century American women Declan Costello (1 August 1926 – 6 June 2011) was an Irish judge, barrister and Fine Gael politician who served as President of the High Court from 1995 to 1998, a Judge of the High Court from 1977 to 1998 and Attorney General of Ireland from 1973 to 1977. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin North-West constituency from 1951 to 1969 and for the Dublin South-West constituency from 1973 to 1977.

The formulator of the Towards a Just Society policy document, Costello was credited with shifting Fine Gael towards the left, a move which made the party a more attractive coalition partner for the Labour Party. Costello's ideals were later viewed as having been taken up by Garret FitzGerald, who became leader of Fine Gael and was twice Taoiseach. As Attorney General of Ireland, Costello created the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Law Reform Commission, and for this Costello has been called the "most consequential attorney general in the state's history".

Background
David Declan Costello was born and grew up in Dublin, the son of John A. Costello who served as Taoiseach on two occasions. He was educated at University College Dublin (UCD), where he studied Law and Economics from 1943, and was an auditor of the UCD Law Society. In 1944 he entered King's Inn on a scholarship. During his time in UCD, he won a number of medals for debating in the Law Society and the Literary and Historical Society. His time as a student was interrupted in 1946 due to a bout of tuberculosis of the kidney which forced him to spend 10 months in a health clinic in Switzerland. He would survive the disease but at the cost of one of his kidneys, which would leave him in relative frail health and appearance for the rest of his life. Due to a relapse of his condition in 1947 that forced him to once again return to Switzerland, he missed his father's ascent to the office of Taoiseach in February 1948.

In 1948, Costello completed his degree and was joined the Irish bar and began practising law in and around Dublin.

Political Career

Becoming a TD and early social influences

Having an obvious deep connection to the party, Costello had been a member of Fine Gael since joining college. In 1951, at the age of just 24, he was elected to Dáil Éireann as a Fine Gael TD for the Dublin North-West constituency during that year's general election. He was the youngest member of the house at the time, earning him the unofficial position of the "Baby of the Dáil". The following years would significantly influence Costello's political views; his exposure to the poor living conditions of his constituents in Dublin North-west radically altered his views on housing. In 1953 Costello married Joan Fitzsimons. With Joan, Costello would go on to have four sons and two daughters. One of these sons was later found to have autism, and the cause of children with special needs quickly became an area of special concern for Costello, particularly as "his elder brother Wilfrid had been left with a mild mental disability during birth". Costello co-founded the Association of Parents and Friends of Mentally Handicapped Children (renamed St Michael's House in later years) in 1955, and aided in the fund-raising for a daycare centre in 1956 for the education of children who were mentally disabled. The fundraising would lead to the daycare centre becoming known as an official school in 1960. Beginning in 1956 until he died in 2011, Costello was the St Michael's House president, making him ultimately responsible for 170 centres across the Dublin region.

Stepping out of his father's shadow
In 1954 John Costello became Taoiseach for a second time while Declan retain his seat. Although Declan was not placed in a cabinet position, he had a measure of influence over his father and the government. Considered the most radical of those who advised his father, Declan pushed against the austerity measures of Minister for Finance Gerard Sweetman, who in time would become a great rival and adversary. Following the 1957 Irish general election, in which Fine Gael and its coalition partners lost control of the government to Fianna Fáil, Costello became Fine Gael's spokesperson on foreign affairs. In this capacity, Costello asserted liberal, anti-communist views while encouraging European integration amongst the growing European Economic Community organisation. Two issues, in particular, drew his attention: the government’s support for the withdrawal of Russian and US forces from Europe, and the support given for a resolution favouring the inclusion of “Communist China” as part of the UN.

It was also at this time that he began to advocate that Fine Gael move politically leftward in order to broaden its image beyond that of simply being a status quo, bourgeois party, as well as to make it a more attractive coalition partner to the Labour party. Towards the end of the 1950s, Costello began to assert himself even more in Fine Gael; alongside a growing collection of progressives within the party, Costello founded a monthly political magazine as well as a research and study group focused on developing new policies for the party. However, to their disappointment, Costello and his faction found the rest of Fine Gael slow and sluggish in response to their new ideas, and thought that they were against complex making of policies and the voicing of personal differences in public. Following his father's retirement from politics in 1959, longstanding member James Dillon took control of the leadership of the party and Costello felt his ability to influence policy-making slipping away.

The Just Society
In 1963 Costello found an attempt to change party policy suppressed by the party leadership. Regardless, in April 1964 Costello broke party protocols and circulated a proposal to radically alter Fine Gael's economic policies. At this point Costello did not expect his proposal to gain traction within the party; instead it was to be used as a pretext to leave the party and politics, and to turn to his work as a lawyer. Costello neither canvassed other party members nor spoke to the press following the circulation of his document. However, to his surprise, Costello's ideas began to pick up momentum with Fine Gael backbenchers, who had begun to crave a means by which Fine Gael could differentiate itself from Fianna Fáil. Journalists too began to take an interest in the initiative, sensing a new direction emerging in Irish politics.   

Costello began to argue his case with the Fine Gael frontbench, and using his honed debate skills, dominated proceedings. Unable to outright repudiate Costello's ideas, the frontbench sought to bog down discussions and drag them out. However, in March of 1965 the party was shocked by the development that Fianna Fáil were seeking to hold a general election. Caught with no time to develop a separate manifesto other than what Costello was proposing, suddenly Costello's ideas were given the green light. He should go to expand his initial policy document into a 30,000-word manifesto called Towards a Just Society. The document would go on to have a major impact on the party for many decades. 

Towards a Just Society called for a radical shift in the Irish economy to something closer to a social democratic mixed economy; it called for production objectives in the private-sector, earnings and credit from banks to be controlled, no discrimination of women's wages, industrial school reformation, lower use of indirect taxes, free near-universal health care with the decision of what doctor to have, and an educational system that permits moving to university despite being wealthy or not. Although radical, because of its length Towards a Just Society was difficult to communicate to the Irish public in the short time the party had to campaign in the 1965 Irish general election. Fine Gael did not make gains in the elections, and afterwards, Labour were rattled by the move, and in response, they themselves also moved more to the left. However, the Just Society's critique of public services in Ireland forced Fianna Fáil to alter their policies, and during the election, they made promises in regards to housing, health and welfare. Costello's political profile was enhanced by the Just Society concept.

After the 1965 election 
Costello continued his work as a TD for Dublin North-West and came to seek the leadership of Fine Gael to continue his Just Society project. His opportunity came quickly, as following the 1965 election James Dillon stepped down as leader of the party. However, Costello was politically outmanoeuvred by Dillon and Sweetman who moved rapidly to place Liam Cosgrave as Dillon's successor, and were successful. In the aftermath, a dejected Costello sought to become the party's spokesperson for Finance, but instead was handed the position of spokesperson for health and social welfare. Costello was further frustrated by Cosgrave's limp espousal of the Just Society concept. 

Post-1965, Costello's health once again began to haunt him, and his position as de facto leader of Fine Gael's progressive faction increasing fell to a young Garret FitzGerald, whom Costello himself had brought into the party. Like Costello, Fitzgerald was the son of a stalwart of the party, being the son of Desmond Fitzgerald, and like Costello Fitzgerald shook off the traditional conservatism of his father to embrace a more social liberal outlook. In February 1967, Costello said that he will not aim for the dáil again and focused on his successful legal work. Michael O'Leary of Labour lamented that Irish politics would be losing a "young man of great courage and idealism". Fine Gael backbencher John Healy wrote "He has been lost to Fine Gael almost from the day Mr Liam Cosgrave took over, reshuffled his deck and left Declan Costello on the fringe of things. Declan Costello deserved better: he did not get it". 

In 1968/1969, Costello successfully defended Sean Bourke against extradition to the United Kingdom in relation to his abetting of Soviet double agent George Blake escaping from prison. In 1972 Costello unsuccessfully defended journalist Kevin O'Kelly against contempt of court charges, arising from a radio interview he conducted with Provisional IRA leader Seán Mac Stiofáin. O'Kelly was sentenced to three months in prison.   

Although outside the confines of Fine Gael, Costello continued to remain in the political sphere. He would host parties and meetings of Fine Gael and Labour members, where they would discuss possible Fine Gael/Labour coalitions, how to dislodge Cosgrave as leader of Fine Gael and even the possibility of forming a new political party. When the prospects of an actual Fine Gael/Labour coalition became more and more tangible from 1970 onwards, Costello announced he would stand for the Dáil in the next election. He stood in a different constituency from his previous one, moving to Dublin South-West, but nevertheless was successfully elected at the 1973 Irish general election. The inclusion of a progressive such as Costello on the Fine Gael ticket helped cement the Fine Gael/Labour coalition.

Attorney General of Ireland
When Fine Gael returned to government in 1973, Costello was appointed Attorney General of Ireland under Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave. By focusing on his successes in the legal profession, Cosgrave was able to prevent Costello from holding a ministry without dismissing him out of hand. Regardless, Costello accepted the position, even though it actually meant he would earn less money than if he continued his private law practice. As per the custom in Ireland, Costello as Attorney General rarely spoke in the Dáil. However, he was influential amongst the cabinet, where his views were held in high regard by the minister for foreign affairs Garret FitzGerald, and members of Labour, such as Justin Keating who was the minister for industry and commerce. 

In his role as attorney general, Costello took part in the negotiations for the Sunningdale Agreement. Costello took his cues from John Hume, the leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party, the main nationalist party in Northern Ireland at the time, and like Hume was successful in pushing for very capable all-Ireland establishments. When the agreement was challenged as unconstitutional, it was Costello's role to defend it. He did so successfully in the courts, but his ultra-aggressive defence of it contributed to the disdain in which Unionists held it, and in turn, they would cause the collapse of the agreement in early 1974. 

Costello pushed, unsuccessfully, for family law in Ireland to be updated so that it would be more sympathetic to forsaken wives, mothers who were not married, and out of wedlock-born children, as well as other more liberal values. In 1974, he also was the main person to promote a bill that would have liberalised the purchase of contraceptives in Ireland by allowing married couples to access them without barrier. However, the bill failed when six members of Fine Gael, including most prominently of all Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave, voted against it.

As Attorney General, Costello refused requests by members of the coalition to have their constituents' minor criminal charges squashed, an established practice in Ireland. Costello sought to depoliticise the office of Attorney General, and successfully did so in 1975 upon his establishment of the Director of Public Prosecutions's office. From then on, briefs for criminal cases would be apportioned despite party relationship. Finding many of his attempts to reform Irish law stifled by a combination of bureaucratic lethargy and defiance from vested interests, Costello founded the Law Reform Commission in 1975. Although the Law Reform Commission lacked resources or political support, in time it was able to produce significant legal reform in Ireland thanks to its institutional status. 

During his time as Attorney General, Costello proved to be a thorn in the side of the British government. Costello was vocal in his belief that, wherever possible, the Irish state should refuse to extradite Provisional Irish Republican Army prisoners to the United Kingdom. Costello's stance was born out of his experience in 1973 when he was in charge of Ireland's case with the European Commission of Human Rights being against the UK for the internment and torture of nationalists in Northern Ireland. Costello had been convinced he needed to establish precedent in international law on the matter, regardless of diplomatic concerns. Engaging the political right and tabloid press in the UK, Costello was able to prove in court that the British state was illegally using sensory deprivation techniques on prisoners. In 1977, it was decided by the court that the prisoners were treated harmfully before giving the verdict of the UK being cleared of torture.

For having created the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Law Reform Commission, Costello has been called the "most consequential attorney general in the state's history".

Judicial career  
Although the Fine Gael/Labour coalition had expanded social investment and broadened the tax base in Ireland, its more ambitious plans were halted by the 1973 oil crisis as well as by the deepening of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. A by-election in Dublin South-West in 1976 signalled that his own seat was in danger, and Costello responded he would not try to be re-elected. Instead, Liam Cosgrove made him a judge of the high court in May 1977. 

As a judge, Costello was described as "stern, meticulous and industrious". He specialised in equity. In response to growing paramilitarism, Costello developed "sophisticated asset-freezing orders and search warrants". One tendency for which Costello was noted, was for early case decisions as to the rights and wrongs of each party's intentions, and encouraging the applicable barrister to make a satisfactory legal argument. Costello did not care much for precedent; instead he favoured "creative use of technicalities" and his decisions were considered all but appeal-proof.  A number of Costello's decisions on intellectual property were cited internationally. 

Following the Whiddy Island disaster in 1979, in which 50 people lost their lives in an oil tanker explosion, Costello became the tribunal's head created to investigate the matter. His report on the incident was highly critical of the two international companies responsible for handling the tanker (TotalEnergies and Gulf Oil), but also of a terminal controller on-site as well as the Irish authorities for failing to supervise safety practices. Costello was subsequently praised for his speedy but thorough handling of the investigation.  

After the Widdy Island investigation, Costello was appointed chairman of two committees: one created for the development of a national youth policy, and the other to guide the charity sector's governance; both produced comprehensive reports but their findings were effectively ignored. In 1985 Costello upheld the firing of Eileen Flynn, an unmarried woman who had given birth to a child while working as a teacher at a Catholic-run school. He ultimately supported the nuns who ran the school and their contention that Flynn's “conduct was capable of damaging” their efforts to uphold Catholic “norms of behaviour”.  

Costello's decisions as a judge were informed by his belief "that the Irish constitution was best understood in the light of its Christian preamble and of passages acknowledging an ethical order superior to formal law." Based on this interpretation, Costello believed that "Irish judges could override laws that contravened the classical Christian iteration of natural law as formulated by St Thomas Aquinas, which stressed morality and economic justice." Conversely, Costello advised Irish judges to practice utmost restraint in actually exercising these powers. 

In 1989 Costello ruled on matters involving "the limits of judicial authority"; During O'Reilly v. Limerick Corporation (1989), Costello ruled that the courts could not adjudicate over the state's distribution of public resources, as this required specialist knowledge. In 1993, Costello ruled "that the Office of Public Works was not exempt from the planning process." In 1995, Costello ruled that a "withholding tax" was unconstitutional, a decision which was said to have cost the state around £60 million.

The X Case
  
In 1992 Costello was drawn into one of the most high-profile legal cases in the history of the Irish state. In February the Attorney General of Ireland, Harry Whelehan, wanted an injunction for the high court due to the restraining of a 14-year-old, by Costello, who was a victim of statutory rape, known by 'X', from travelling outside of Ireland for have an abortion.  Costello was forced to weigh the argument that there was a high probability of "X" committing suicide unless they were allowed to travel against the argument that a 1983 constitutional amendment in Ireland explicitly granted the "right to life" to the fetus. Costello made the decision "that the certainty of the fetus dying in an abortion outweighed the possibility of a suicide", and granted the injunction.  The response was explosive; there was international condemnation of the decision. On February 26, the Supreme Court of Ireland overturned Costello's ruling. Costello's ruling was opined to be in breach of European law, which "protects the right to travel for services lawfully provided" in other EU countries, although an official ruling on that thinking was avoided. That same year, a constitutional amendment was created that guarantees "the right of a pregnant woman to go abroad". 

The X Case had shocked Costello's liberal admirers, but nevertheless his appointment as President of the High Court in 1995 was not judged to be controversial, partly because he had been acting president since 1991. As president, Costello created procedures which allowed "urgent cases to be dealt with faster" before retiring as a judge in December 1997. Costello's final act as a public figure was "to head an inquiry into the tax evasion conspiracy directed by the Guinness and Mahon Bank".  Having taken the position in 1999, he retired from it in 2000 upon medical advice.

Political influences
Costello has been described as a "devotee" of the Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain, a beliver that "human rights existed to serve the common good rather than individual autonomy". Costello himself cited British Labour party leader Hugh Gaitskell, Irish socialist James Connolly, Irish Minister for Justice Kevin O'Higgins and US President John F. Kennedy as political influences and leaders whom he admired. Researcher Ciara Meehan has suggested that the influence of Pope John XXIII's Mater et magistra in 1961 was a clear influence upon the Just Society document.

Personal life
In 1950, Jacqueline Bouvier, later to become better known as Jackie Kennedy, was staying for a time in Ireland. She had befriended Father Joseph Leonard, an elderly priest who lived in Drumcondra, Dublin. It was through Father Leonard that Bouvier was introduced to the Costello family. Bouvier had confessed to Father Leonard that she was seeking a husband at the time, and Leonard suggested that Declan, then 24 years old, would be a good match. Bouvier wrote to Leonard that Declan "sounds like absolute heaven" and that he would make a "suitable" husband. However, the match was never to come about as Bouvier continued her travels onwards to Scotland, and later returned to the United States while Costello married Joan Fitzsimons in 1953. Jacqueline would return to Ireland in 1955 as Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy alongside her new husband US Senator (and future US President) John F. Kennedy, whom she introduced to the Costello family. Jacqueline would later write in a private letter to Costello recalling a double date between the couples: "That night we dined at Jammet's and our happy marriage was nearly rent asunder because Jack was enchanted by Joan and I was enchanted with you -- but somehow we patched it all up at the movies"      

Costello and his wife Joan would have six children together, including Caroline Costello who followed in his footsteps and also became a Judge. 

Costello died on 6 June 2011 in Rathfarnham, Dublin following a long illness.

Legacy
The impact of Declan Costello's Just Society concept has continued to be felt decades after it was published. The Just Society document had been called "a milestone" in the party's history and remains frequently referenced. During the 1980s, Garret FitzGerald as Taoiseach was considered to be the champion of the Just Society concept. During the 2017 Fine Gael leadership election between Leo Varadkar and Simon Coveney, Coveney put forward that he would bring the party back in line with the concepts stipulated in the Just Society document. It was also during that 2017 leadership contest that leading member of Fine Gael, Paschal Donohoe, published an opinon piece in the Irish Times in which he heavily praised the Just Society document and called for it to once again become a centrepiece of Fine Gael's policies.

See also
Families in the Oireachtas
Attorney General v. X

References

1926 births
2011 deaths
Attorneys General of Ireland
Alumni of University College Dublin
Fine Gael TDs
Irish barristers
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Members of the 14th Dáil
Members of the 15th Dáil
Members of the 16th Dáil
Members of the 17th Dáil
Members of the 18th Dáil
Members of the 20th Dáil
Politicians from County Dublin
Presidents of the High Court (Ireland)